Part 26

"Oh!" said Casey sarcastically, and O'Rourke laughed. "It's no use to hold back, lady," continued Casey. "We know all about your movements. You went in Meinert's--in at the family entrance."

"Yes," replied Hilda. She was shaking as if she were having a chill. "But just to the door, then home again."

"Now, that won't do," said Casey roughly. "You'd better tell the whole story."

"Tell them all about it, Hilda," interposed her father in an agonized tone.

"Don't hold back anything."

"Oh--father--Otto--it was nothing. I didn't go in. He--Mr. Feuerstein--came here, and he looked so sick, and he begged me to come over to Meinert's for a minute. He said he had something to say to me. And then I went. But at the door I got to thinking about all he'd done, and I wouldn't go in. I just came back home."

"What was it that he had done, lady?" asked O'Rourke.

"I won't tell," Hilda flashed out, and she started up. "It's nobody's business. Why do you ask me all these questions? I won't answer any more."

"Now, now, lady," said Casey. "Just keep cool. When you went, what did you take a knife from the counter for?"

"A knife!" Hilda gasped, and she would have fallen to the floor had not Otto caught her.

"That settles it!" said Casey, in an undertone to O'Rourke. "She's it, all right. I guess she's told us enough?"

O'Rourke nodded. "The Cap'n'll get the rest out of her when he puts her through the third degree."

They rose and Casey said, with the roughness of one who is afraid of his inward impulses to gentleness: "Come, lady, get on your things. You're going along with us."

"No! No!" she cried in terror, flinging herself into her father's arms.

Brauner blazed up. "What do you mean?" he demanded, facing the detectives.

"You'll find out soon enough," said Casey in a blustering tone. "The less fuss you make, the better it'll be for you. She's got to go, and that's all there is to it."

"This is an outrage," interrupted Otto, rushing between Hilda and the detectives.

"You daren't take her without telling her why. You can't treat us like dogs."

"Drop it!" said Casey contemptuously. "Drop it, Dutchy. I guess we know what we're about."

"Yes--and I know what I'm about," exclaimed Otto. "Do you know Riordan, the district leader here? Well, he's a friend of mine. If we haven't got any rights you police are bound to respect, thank God, we've got a 'pull'."

"That's a bluff," said Casey, but his tone was less insolent. "Well, if you must know, she's wanted for the murder of Carl Feuerstein."

Hilda flung her arms high above her head and sank into a chair and buried her face. "It's a dream!" she moaned. "Wake me--wake me!"

Otto and Brauner looked each at the other in horror. "Murder!" whispered Brauner hoarsely. "My Hilda--murder!"

Otto went to Hilda and put his arms about her tightly and kissed her.

"She's got to come," said Casey angrily. "Now, will she go quietly or shall I call the wagon?"

This threat threw them into a panic. "You'd better go," said Otto in an undertone to Hilda. "Don't be frightened, dear. You're innocent and they can't prove you guilty. You're not poor and friendless."

At the pressure of his arms Hilda lifted her face, her eyes shining at him through her tears. And her heart went out to him as never before. From that moment it was his, all his. "My love, my dear love," she said. She went to the closet and took out her hat. She put it on before the mirror over the mantelpiece. "I'm ready," she said quietly.

In the street, she walked beside Casey; her father and Otto were close behind with O'Rourke. They turned into Sixth Street. Half a block down, in front of Meinert's, a crowd was surging, was filling sidewalk and street. When they came to the edge of it, Casey suddenly said "In here" and took her by the arm. All went down a long and winding passage, across an open court to a back door where a policeman in uniform was on guard.